Jeff Levine
Jeff Levine's family roots trace to Lithuania on his father's side and to Antwerp, Belgium on his mother's side, with both families arriving in South Africa in the early 1900s. His father's family settled in Johannesburg and his mother's in Cape Town, and both were largely secular. His father had a difficult early life, going out to work around age twelve to help support a family of six children, and spent much of his career in sales, moving from glass into timber, veneers, and laminates. His parents met in Johannesburg and married quickly, with a ten-year age difference between them. Jeff was the youngest of four children. His mother later worked, mainly with the Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa.
Jeff grew up in Cape Town and then Johannesburg, attending public schools before enrolling at the King David Jewish day school in Linksfield through high school. The family kept a secular Jewish home and belonged to synagogues in both cities, and in his younger days he was briefly involved in a Zionist youth movement. After high school he trained as an electrical apprentice for about four years, splitting his time between work and technical college. Facing military conscription in 1986, he chose instead to move to America. After an earlier visit in 1984 exploring the jewelry business with his brother Ian, he settled on Dallas and arrived in April 1986.
In Dallas, Jeff began working with a South African-owned furniture business, starting in the warehouse and rising through sales, later helping open a showroom and managing a store in Houston from 1992 to 2001. He married in 1993 and has four children: Cameron, Cole, Keely, and Cody. After the furniture years and a clothing venture with his then-wife, he returned to Dallas in 2007 and founded Modern Dallas, which grew into a network of city websites, a print publication, a TV show, and a radio program, along with the Mod Artist Gallery. He remains active in community art and charity work, including the 8x8 show benefiting the Museum of Biblical Art, Dwell with Dignity, and the Henderson Avenue public art program.
Full Transcript
good morning this is the 20th of August 2015 I'm Carol Walden elemina bringing Jeff Levine at the JCC for the rooster boots project welcome Jeff thank you for coming with us this morning thank you it's a pleasure to be here what I'd like to do is start by asking you if you could tell us a little bit about the history of your grandparents where they came from prior to the South African experience a little bit about that history and then we'll move forward so on my father's side they were from what's it that were from the thuwaini I'm planning to go to City Rica we
go Reagan Lithuania and on my mother's side they were from Antwerp in Belgium they arrived in South Africa in the early nineteen hundred's my father's family settled in Johannesburg and my mother's family settled in Cape Town and what was their reason for coming to South Africa I think it was prior to the war well actually on my father's side was prior to the water system to move the family and I think there was opportunity in South Africa on the my mother's side I think it did what what I think it was part of just leaving Europe and making should get the kids out and she's
very young when she arrived and what was what were the professionals that the grandparents were involved in at that time a little cool to top my head okay at the end my father had an interesting upbringing I can't recall of exactly what his father did but I think his father left the family of the young age and his young agent he started working at the young age my father Tim the liberal 12 years old on my mother's side her father was a tradesman a trader and that's as much as I recall I know he passed away I think in his early 50s tell us about
your father's background what has this interesting upbringing that you're talking about I think unfortunately in in his life his life started real early having to go out and work and make a living for the family he is one of six kids he wasn't the youngest I think he was the third oldest and he went out to work and he used to go to school and then used to go work in the afternoons and then Wintel 7 8 9 10 o'clock at night what type of work was he doing he's working in a year legal office and used to do paperwork and then go home and
start his day over and it's important to bring in money for the family where were your grandparents religious no mostly secular both sides and both sides and at what point and where did your did your parents meet one another they met in Johannesburg my mother did you have as bird my father was there if I recall correctly I think they were set up on a date and I suppose the rest is history I can't tell you exactly the the dynamics my father was much older he was in his 30s there's a difference of 10 years between my mother and my father so almost immediately they
started a family and well it was a quick marriage I mean what was your father's professional at that point at that point he was always in sales in those early days he was in wood timber selling timber and laminate and wood actually I think back then to think about it gives in the glass business he was working for a company which is today PPG which is a large glass company but there were glass companies in South Africa notice what he was doing in sales and then more as he transitioned into woods and veneers and laminates and and that kind of sales the glass company but
then he was working for was it owned by South Africa - yeah cold-blood net I think no no no no they wouldn't a furniture business because we've interviewed somebody recently who owned a glass company I'm wondering I can't remember the name of the family but somebody here in Bali I don't know if there's a connection I unfortunately Cameron and I can't recall the top of my head but yeah busy you know it was a small bit they were installing there's a small glass company obviously grew and evolved into much bigger but I think I came from there remember the the family's name but it when
it became a substance of business the interest is called plate-glass yeah that's a if their jaws you but it might be interesting to try and go back and figure it out and see who that family is because it may be the family that's here in Dallas or part of the night yeah yeah and that's definitely possible yeah exactly so he went from glass into timber into veneers timber laminates as we know them today similar to this and he spend most of them in that industry for most of his life and was your mother working or what you think in the early years you took care
of the kids there four of us I was the youngest and sort of when I got close to high school she went out to work and she mainly worked in the early years with the producer organizations the Jewish border deputies in South Africa I think she worked for mainly the Jewish border deputies tell me about your school like what type of a school did you go to school I went to a partially we lived in Cape Town and that's where I started out my schooling at a public school or what does public school to relate to us here I started out there and I went
through you know the grading is a little different but let's say to fourth grade we moved up to Johannesburg and I went to a another public school for a couple of years and then I was fortunate to go to the local Jewish day school King David in links field and went there pretty much in my last year in sort of it middle school or elementary school all the way through high school and that's where I had my education well sure was your family observant in the household it was did you have a kosher home we'd never kosher home but we was we were secular Jews
we had a we went we didn't keep kosher in the house how often were you affiliated with us God yeah we in Cape Town it was the clearmount Claremont synagogue and in Johannesburg to Sydney violence law did you or any of your siblings belong to any Zionist movement back then we I was in my younger days part of beta 1 web siblings was also part of a tour and we took him or two but didn't invest a lot of time in it in the early days later in life now I haven't dedicated in my time to do those organizations so after high school what did
you do after high school I was in a quandary because in South Africa you had to go to the draft mm-hmm but decided to be coming apprentice an electrical apprentice came electrician and spent four years in their program yeah at three four years in a program where you worked for it was six months of the year and the other six months you spent in a Technical College and did that and work part-time and went to school and then in April 86 I had to make a concerted decision whether I was going to go to the Army in July because it's the subscription subscription came up
in July in January and July I was scheduled to go and I finished the the course in electrical and made a decision at that point that instead of stained South Africa I was gonna move to America and then through my life changed to be an American were you married at the time I was single USA I was single I was 21 or 22 and obviously there was a lot of thought that went into it part of the thought before coming to America was maybe going to Israel and doing something they're within a educational just learning something different going there makes you think you can come
chef yeah but that's a different course altogether South Africa you know we had my brothers had been in the Army they had spent USA one of them was in involved in the war in Angola and I think being the youngest the advice was you know this is just fun but it's cracked up to be I think it was a pretty easy decision and came to America did you come to Dallas immediately came today actually it's interesting before we came to Dallas I give you a little background in 84 my brother who's loves hearing down the still was in the jewelry business and said look I
want to go to the States see we can sell some of the jewelry we make in South Africa in America and so we spent about him to two or three weeks here in 84 I mean I think was August and we based ourselves in Dallas before the appointments in Texas there is a large jewelry companies in the area sales and gordon's in in Houston and we spent time here traveling around we went to different cities in the states in Austin to get a feel for potentially would be a landing but Dallas was the base when we arrived and it's funny too to drive down the
streets even today just on you know Munford it's just south of 635 the extension or when walking one foot goes all the way down on episode one for them in 635 there was a little conduct is they did but we decided after traveling around to New York Chicago Los Angeles that Dennis pretty much would be the place we'd come to and we arrived in 86 he arrived a couple of months before I did and then I can you ladies in April of 86 and it was the beginning of this journey so you came to go into business with your brother know that was sort of
maybe the plan but at that point I was 22 years old 21 22 and I decided needed to go work he was starting out he was working as well and to support what we were doing I went to get a couple of jobs one of the first jobs was selling awkward door-to-door which was a wonderful experience and then I was very fortunate I was connected with a business here that South African owned it's a furniture business school Kent it is called contaminating and I started helping them they were in a transition of moving back into their stores they had a fire and they were happy
to have me helping them and moving furniture and that really was the beginning and start of my career with Ken Tony that lasted 15 years oh yeah so I started out there in 86 moving furniture delivering furniture running the warehouse run overseeing the warehouse operations actually working in the warehouse and doing all the work and then obviously as we grew I moved up into different positions and sales and then we open up a showroom in the World Trade Center called contempo designs ran that for a few years and then moved to Houston to open up the can't only store there and spent almost nine years
in Houston from 92 to 2001 and at that point decided even some change and began a different journey on my own opening up a clothing store with my ex-wife in Houston and we did there that store was ran for about five years I lived it after three and then some consulting work actually came we were living in Houston at the time so at what point during all this did you marry married in 93 and did you marry someone from Houston girl she's from Dallas she had moved to Houston with a different relationship and we got set up on a blind date and decided to go
and meet her figured in my mind the first night that this is potentially somebody that could spend time with and then a few weeks were engaged we're but living in Houston and we got married in March of 93 did you have children uh yeah we have four kids [Laughter] mike is the oldest is 21 I have an 18 year old fifteen year old in the 12 year old so we'll get back to the children are you back to the children okay so tell me so after the clothing business then what happened clothing business she stayed in the business I moved on through their transition I
had looked to do some other consulting work with different furniture companies in Los Angeles with some time there they came back to Dallas in 2007 mm-hm and basically spent time with the luxury of having family here stayed with him for a little bit and started to map out a plan for the future I always had a vision of being on my own in business starting my own company and look at all the options that I had gained as far as knowledge and education through the years and started putting piece together based on my experiences the first few months of being back in Dallas decided to
create a unique concept at the time unique not that it wasn't something that people were already doing on a publishing level but like a magazine online the impetus and I supposed to sisters trivial thing I suppose is pardon here suppose it's it's part of the the journey I was staying with my family and my kids are but the family wasn't used inside community community every couple of weeks but I used to walk around a neighborhood in North Dallas and and so used to count all the contemporary homes and modern homes and development every day mister walk for miles and then looked at the amount of
homes and thought well if they this many homes in this little corner of a development in Dallas there's got to be a business for what I want to do particularly envision which was creating a website with people who have a modern contemporary home mid-century modern home can list their home on my website it is for sale and there were some interesting developments that had popped up early in those years ago seven which were significant communities only allowed home owners to build modern homes and I looked at that and I said well if there's an opportunity for people to be that specific and dedicate land and
make the homeowners only built homes that are modern there's something brewing in Dallas and obviously my background with can Tony was contemporary furniture modern contemporary furniture and early years he was 88 89 just to go back a little bit my brother myself and purchased land in North Dallas and we actually built a house which was a soft contemporary home so we had the the desire to be involving business at homes but it was the first test run and eventually we lived in it and sold it a little later on what's your brother's name Ian Levine yeah no I need no idea so we built the
home it didn't pan out exactly the way we wanted it to plan out and we we went on a different journey he's in the jewelry business and I was in furniture business and going back to 2007 looking forward to 2007 and my experience is pretty varied I spent time in the furniture business part of the furniture business even though dresses furniture was partly designed and I was involved in projects design projects for clients in Houston where there's a home office so I spent some time in the design side spent some time developing business which fortunately was pretty successful and still is very successful you have
an online side of this point so yeah so coming back to where I am in 2007 I started modern Dallas dotnet modern Dallas taught me it is so alive and kicking today in 2015 we've obviously evolved and grow and we do a lot of different things we have a print publication we mail out to modern homes contemporary homes and we recently solidly the TV show for Martindale's TV mm-hmm where we go out every week and we source at homes that are for sale we interview an art gallery owner or artist who's having a current show and then we go and look for cool spaces around
town that really i've told like you know just they just have a feel and great vibe about this modern lifestyle that people can go if it's a coffee shop or a restaurant or just a unique space that we feel for this our niche and then one of the other things is we will focus on modern sacred spaces there's some great religious institutions whether it's Jewish non Jewish the Christians Piscopo whatever they have great modern sanctuaries do you ever have you ever done a lot what the gallery called the mod gallery mode artists galleries yeah I am the modern artist gallery as well yeah I have
mud galleries but artist gallery that's a Saint gather yeah that's my gallery as well that's what I thought that's what I thought there was a connection answer it just how do you know about it because I'm a member of the Texas Jewish artists Association and we had a meeting in here that's right we had a meeting recently there yes I was on the panel talking about I wasn't at that meeting but I was at a prior meeting and I don't I remember now I remember talking to you about oh my we have to talk again yes now I make because when you started talking about
this modern business I thought there's something here that that's clicking and I was trying to remember and now I remember the gallery yes okay well we'll talk offline so yeah it's routed through the the eight years we've grown the business we have the similar concepts modern Dallas we have mod Austin dotnet Martin Houston dotnet modern Atlanta Dartmouth and modern NYC common what in New York and we do these we update these websites every week but through the journey and obviously you ask me the interests and we decided to come to but we're going to have we got into the art business early on it was
had somewhat of a passion for arts the art business it's a very different to the retail business and through my connections of modern Dallas I started connecting with different artists and you know nine I had a gallery for a short minutes wasn't the ideal time to open the gallery Dallas in 2009 but there were circumstances that I thought made sense and we opened it and I had one or two really great artists working with me and we had shows for a year and unfortunate us the timing was terrible after one year just didn't make sense to continue so modern Dallas continued through the through the
years and with us cultivating of artists an artist came to me said I'd love to advertise on your website but it but the rates are too high and one day I popped up and I said you know I think we've got a good medium to promote artists market artists not represent artists but just to promote them on on a regular basis and we came up with the Monarchs gallery when once a month we send out an email to our database in all the cities and promoting artists and we found a way to to work together right and that's been going on since 2011 we had
an annual show every year at a local gallery called a loon gallery and then last year after our annual show one of our artists came up and said you know why did we ever get together this is a great group we should talk we should spend time I didn't realize who was part of this group we had had an Art Walk that last year at the gallery and Gail Saxon yeah I may know was that water right there and it was a great event and it just brought the group together and I said alright let's have a meeting and the vision was maybe not to
have a gallery but to go to odd face with a group and just so happened that one of the mod artists is a photographer and he had he has his studio and he was leasing out the front portion of the studio because he didn't it was there was no need for him to use it right his businesses evolved in change and we found a way and since him through this meeting that we were having about art fairs and I said you know what about just thrown out by the gallery and all of a sudden it was this aha moment aha between us and said well
I have the space let's find a way to make this work and we figured out a deal that worked for him and worked for for me and for the artists and ultimately a year ago September we open tomorrow artist gallery it's it's a beautiful space thank you yeah I be honest it's we've been very fortunate we've cultivated a great group and 34 artists now covering you know just different mediums from sculpture ceramic acrylic on canvas oils the great variety wood pieces cracked furniture so it's that's mod artist gallery and mod media is a separate entity and separate business and that's sort of where we are
today so you're very busy I am busy I am busy I obviously and there are other things in the pipeline next week we start a radio show called the modernist so yeah it's crazy at the moment I don't know there's not enough time with the day but it's what it is and it's a lot of fun and stressful but you know it's you do what you enjoy and time just cuts in and so at this point do you have any involvement with with anything in the Jewish community uh not really I'm I suppose at some level it's a lot of strength I do support other
charities I'm involved with a what just going back so about five years ago 2010 I created a event a fine art event for 12 damaged Jewish artists at the in town of abide on Rose Street and it's it was a one-day event was crazy put a lot of time if it means she got a very good response and at the time it was wow that was pretty interesting what else could we do so we came up I worked with Dahlia woods who has a gallery had a gathering development and is actually a part of my daughter's gallery today and Dahlia and I put together a
show which is called the 8x8 well that's what we're doing at the biblical arts you're good yeah Oh cuz I just delivered a piece there yes okay yes sir that's fantastic thank you very much so the story was the first year we didn't at her gallery and when about thirty thirty Jewish artists have included artists from the day schools and yeah from there and keeper and Levine Academy I think everyone was involved we picked up pieces man and we partnered with the charity reporters with Jewish Family Services so this year everything that the money is all going to I'll come to that right because there
is a story okay and the second year Danya at that point I think was leaving town to move to Florida and we decided we needed to find a new gallery and a new charity the Jewish Family Services wasn't didn't seem that interested at the time and we didn't really I don't think we pursued it we just let it ride and then all of a sudden it was upon us and of in between 11 I think it was and we'd found a gallery was called rising gallery downtown and we'd never charity and I and I was very specific in my mind that I wanted a charity
that had somewhat of a religious affiliation to whatever I couldn't figure it out and I was struggling and I you know the great charities I mean these premium charities around Dallas but what I was looking for just wasn't hitting me you know the big ones and little ones and all of a sudden on the set afternoon I got an email from the gallery that had a show for an artist I remember the gallery I don't remember the artist but more importantly the oddest resonating work to a charity or a museum called the biblical Museum replicas Museum this is an interesting concept right right and they're
right here are their ideas so I did a little research and I thought wow how did I not know that their place existed right in the backyard exact so I reached out to them I remembered I think was a Tuesday Monday they were closed Tuesday accord and it was November the third or the fourth and I sure was on the 20th or the or the 12th is there was no time right but I knew at that point it it almost had what I wanted because I done enough research in this short hour or two to say I gotta make this way so I called him
up and I'm telling him all my story and what I'm trying to accomplish and she says well you got to talk to the main the director and he's going to decide so I said look I couldn't make some decisions and I said let's just get it she said make an appointment and we'll get you in and you can talk and I mean Scott pick yes God's fabulous and that was the next day and I gave me my my spiel and I think Scott was like who is this crazy guy so we brought the show to advising they were the beneficiary and then the following year
we decided that we were going to take the show in heaven at the Museum and basically that was the beginning of that relationship with the Museum of biblical Arts that we have our annual 8x8 show and basically it was a gift to the museum and the first year we had a very good I mean every years being a success I think we've almost sold out well I'm so excited about it because I just got invite wonderful well I'm so happy yeah this is great yeah this year I'm cherry so I'm sharing with another gallery owner in town Bob from Southwest gallery belafonte from Southwest gallery
so the two of us will be chairing it and you know it's it's a wonderful it's a wonderful museum on so many levels and so when it comes to charity I have different affiliations I think it's important a lot of art comes from our background religious backgrounds whatever they may be and so yeah I may not participate totally in all the Jewish organizations but I think there's different ones that I find them gravitate to what I do and this is the one other one I'm very fond of us dwell with dignity tell me about well with dignity quick synopsis is it's a group of designers
who came up with a plan that they would furnish homes for people who were starting out again and I think a lot of their potential opportunities comes with churches or organizations that are helping people and reboot their lives through whatever circumstances that they're involved in and and it's more driven through interior design and I like the feel of that it feels good and where we can we do do deliver whatever we can tell them so that's 12 a dignity the Museum of biblical Arts is another one and then on a side note something else that I I do through through the day and that's coming
to culminating to finish right now there's a street on Henderson and you call Olivia senders of the street in Dallas called Henderson Avenue and Henderson Avenue has a program which are started by the Andrews family yes Tom Henderson was the original name yes it's not yes sir Henderson art project was the original name it's now out on Henderson and I oversee the program Oh wonderful so that's really a great person I love her yeah and you know up until hunting two years ago they were one of the if not the land Lord for Henderson Avenue and Aeneas recently sold it but they started this program
with another artist Scott Trent who's a sculptor and where they created the environment on the street from 75 to Ross where they would basically bring together developers and artists businesspeople developers and artists in a beautify the street go drive down the street there's 14 sculptures there's a beautiful wild yellow piece when you turn onto Henderson from the feeder Oh 275 and you keep going down and there's just beautiful metal pieces don't wait to go there so this year we wrapping it up we're waiting for the judges to give us the final results as a juried competition we accept application submissions from all around Texas we
have a group of four judges I even have a party of some uh yep we're planning on a party hopefully for September it's a little hot now today we have the company that actually overseas war who owns a large portion of the property on Henderson as their own PR company and with them will and obviously through the restaurants and the whole program this donation should be the first year since almost the beginning that we'll have an event and that's all on Henderson it's a it's also a wonderful city project even though it's not given by the city oh you're very active we're sort of a
mega yeah absolutely I think that's marvelous it's wonderful you're going to be very close is there anything you miss about South ah oh that's a good question yeah you know what I think I haven't been back in 30 years 29 years really yeah I just the way my life has been and being in retail and kids and all the engine and times of their change there and evolution of animal most of our families oh yeah why every once you have the immediate family in the States it was never really a reason to go back and visit but as you get older and you think about
things I think the one thing that boys pops out is the the last city that I visited before leaving Jasmine was Cape Town it's a beautiful city it's beautiful beaches it's a magnificent place I look at the pictures on Facebook and I think of myself that's maybe one thing that I would really young to go back and we will come back at some point insistence time so now tell me about your children tell you about my children I have four kids the oldest is 21 he's currently studying at Ole Miss his name's Cameron mm-hmm Cameron's studying finance and management at Ole Miss my 18 year
olds go to college tomorrow take you into Texas A&M and Corpus Christi his name's Cole he's 18 and his vision for what he would like to accomplish is he like to be in broadcast journalism and then I have a 15 year old daughter Keely and she's at Highland Park High School starting next week she goes into his freshman year and then I have a sixth grader Cody then he said Highland Park Middle School Macallan dependents can say those are the four kids and what more can I tell you they're great kids they're wonderful kids and hopefully they they do what they need to do if
you had to give them some words of wisdom in terms of what you might tell them every day oh no specifically in terms of what you've learned from your parents what you've learned from juniors and what you've learned just from a sense of value and ethics what would you leave them as a legacy you know I think you know this I mean obviously with the important things of being you know honest have integrity work hard follow your dreams more important stay consistent are you gonna do something focus show up 90% of what you ever you do is getting there and doing a great job and
you know I think more importantly not till I do tell my kids all the time create something for yourself don't rely on other people where you can find a way to make your own living it's a greatest reward and it can be immensely stressful and intensely painful but I think there's a magic in life that when you find your own career or an opportunity gifts of life come to you that you imagine so I think that's really what I mean I try and tell them yet all the time you know and it's not for everybody being in your own and then and dealing with stress
and aggravation and all that because it does doesn't come easy you know running your own company or any your own business is never easy but I think if you can find that magic it's a wonderful life thank you pleasure to speak with you really appreciate your taking your time my pleasure I didn't notice I don't know we talked about me well but that's what it's all about because we want you to we wanted you to share your life not only just with us but to have a legacy for your children and I think it is important what you learn today is it is important for
the community but also for for your family oh thank you so much my pleasure thank you thank you you